Helping Hands Across the Soul Patrol

So I was on the phone last night chatting with NOLAgirl when a call beeped in.

“Hang on,” I told NOLA and clicked over to hear a very stressed and upset Jan (of Soul Patrol Relief) on the other end of the line.

“Are you okay?” I asked.

“Not really…Shelley, are you in Jackson, Mississippi?” she asked.

“Yeah…why? Are you here?”

“Yeah, I’m at the airport. I was on my way to Mobile but got dumped in Jackson for the night.”

“Do you need me to come get you?”

“Yeah.”

“Hang on, I’ll be right there.”

I said goodbye to NOLA, hung up, and headed to airport.

As soon as Jan walked out of the terminal to the car, I gave her hug and asked if she was alright.

“We need to go get me a beer,” she said, her right eye twitching a little.

She had good reason to be stressed.

The Official Soul Patrol is hosting “It’s a Soul Thing,” an event in Mobile tonight to benefit KidOne Transport. At the event, which is endorsed by Taylor Hicks, LMBO will perform and various organizations will be giving donations. Soul Patrol Relief is presenting a check for $3,000. (Jan wanted me to be sure to mention her appreciation to everyone who donated to Soul Patrol Relief, especially those folks from The Boogie Board, who donated the majority of the funds.)

As a founding member of Soul Patrol Relief, Jan’s presence tonight is vital…and, as if that’s not stressful enough, she ended up grounded in Jackson because of confusion with a delayed connecting flight in Houston.

Plus, since it was late when she arrived here (well…9 p.m. is late for pretty much any place in Mississippi), the rental car companies were closed for the night.

So she called me, and I went and got her.

After a quick detour to Kroger (no signs of the Taylor doppleganger), we got to my house where she looked up some information about rental cars online and then crashed in my guest room.

Bright and early this morning, we headed back to the airport so she could get a car and drive the three and a half hours from Jackson to Mobile.

Before she left, I took her picture (above) and had her record a brief message about tonight’s event.

Hope you had a safe drive and a great event, Jan.

And Shelleybot soars off into the sunset…cape flapping in the wind…searching for her next heroic deed.

Thank you so much for coming to the rescue. As you said, I was upset. You know just thinking about it is making my eye twitch. The event went really well. The Official Soul Patrol raised $11,800 at the dinner. In addition, I gave a 3K check to KidOne directly. Other dinners were thrown too and I am interested in seeing how much they raise from everybody.